Crown in the Stars (48 page)

Let Us, then, go down …

Sick with dread, Annah walked north with her beloved husband through the crowded, brick-paved market street. She hated this loud, bustling, rude city, all that it meant, and all that it might yet become. How offensive it must be to the Most High! Worst of all, however, was that wretched tower—the symbol of Nimr-Rada’s flagrant rebellion. The symbol so adored and uplifted by all these people. And there were so many people. It frightened Annah to think that these were her own descendants. Grief fell upon her, pitiless, heaped with regrets.
Have I somehow turned them against You?

At the end of the market street, Shem stopped, and Annah paused with him, staring across the rippling, glittering waters of the canal that separated them from the tower. They had only to cross the hewn wooden bridge to find Kuwsh, Annah was sure. But she didn’t want to move. And apparently, neither did Shem. Curious, Annah looked at her husband. His hand tightened around hers, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was watching a traveler, robed and covered much as they were covered.
Do we know this man?
Annah wondered.

As if to answer her question, the traveler turned and looked at them. He could have been anyone’s son: brown skin, dark hair, brown eyes. An ordinary man. But his expression… His eyes were passionately, vividly alive and full of…
everything
. Strange yet wonderfully familiar.
He trusts the Most High… His Presence is here
.

Nodding politely, the traveler turned away from the tower and walked past Shem and Annah into the city, vanishing among the crowd. Annah stared after the man, wishing they had spoken to him. He didn’t seem to belong here any more than she and her husband did.

A breeze fluttered lightly past Annah’s head covering,
easing the midmorning warmth. Shem started to say something to her, but they were both distracted by the thudding clatter of horses charging off the wooden bridge. Two horses passed, ridden by Sharah’s son, Adoniyram, and a richly clad young woman with flowing dark brown curls. It took Annah an instant to recognize her.
Shoshannah
.

Raising her voice, she cried, “Shoshannah!”

But it was already too late. Adoniyram had turned their horses into the market street, barely slowing their pace. Shoshannah looked around almost wildly, without seeing Annah and Shem. The crowds in the street parted for the two young riders, then surged together again.

“She’s more important to us than Kuwsh,” Shem decided aloud. They turned and followed Shoshannah.

Shoshannah heard a woman calling her name—someone who sounded amazingly like I’ma-Annah. She looked around desperately but recognized no one in the crowd. Adoniyram was riding too fast; he was frightening her.

“Please, Adoniyram, slow down. There’s no need for us to hurry so.”

“There is,” he insisted, his usually charming features cold. “We have to hide you away until I’m sure you’ll be safe.”

“I’ll be safe. Ra-Anan won’t kill me because of what’s happened. Slow down, Adoniyram, please. If you’re so worried, you should have brought your guardsman.”

“There wasn’t time.”

“He might have saved your mother from—” “Don’t speak of her again.”

Now his tone, his whole attitude, frightened her more
than his riding. Had he wanted his mother to die?
You did!
she thought, horrified, convinced she was right.
You wanted your mother dead
. The realization choked down all her arguments. If he could be so cruel that he would seek his own mother’s death, then he would certainly turn against her if she pushed him too far.
I don’t understand you! Nor do I want to
.

She was relieved to finally see Ra-Anan’s walled home. As soon as she was inside, she would run to Demamah’s room and stay there. She would never again speak to Adoniyram willingly. Never. To her shock, Adoniyram urged her horse past Ra-Anan’s gate. She couldn’t help calling out, “Stop! Adoniyram, where are you going?”

“Where you’ll be safe.” Obstinate—definitely lordlike—he said, “Shoshannah, if you start a scene, I give you my word I’ll finish it. Now, listen to me;
trust
me; I’ll be sure you’re protected. You’ll have no need…”

She felt a breathlike breeze, stirring both fear and wonder. Adoniyram was still speaking to her, but she couldn’t understand him. She stared at his face, trying to comprehend his words. He was serious… and she didn’t understand the chopped, garbled syllables emerging from his lips.
I don’t understand… He’s speaking to me… and I don’t understand. It’s all been too much; I’m going mad
.

Other voices lifted around her throughout the street, garbled like Adoniyram’s but different.
I am going mad
.

Adoniyram looked away from her now, turning them toward a wall-enclosed residence, whistling sharply to the guardsmen. They seemed bewildered as they opened the wooden gate and bowed.

This must be his residence
, Shoshannah told herself, looking around inside the unadorned garden courtyard. Her panic heightened.
He’s taking me into his household!

Frantically, she scrambled off her horse and ran, but
Adoniyram caught her arm before she even reached the gate, which the guardsmen had already closed. At once, Shoshannah dropped to her knees on the hard brick pavings. She would
not
go inside with him.

To her surprise, Adoniyram knelt with her, gripping her gold-cuffed wrists painfully but talking quietly, his appearance rational, his voice garbled and mangled unintelligibly. Overcome by her failing senses, by everything, Shoshannah felt herself breaking down into tears. “I don’t understand what you’re saying! Adoniyram, please, I don’t understand.”

What is she babbling?
Adoniyram stared at Shoshannah, incredulous. She couldn’t be joking at a time like this. Watching her hard, he realized she was serious. She was crying, her gray eyes were huge, bright with tears, almost wild as she pleaded with him in low, clipped phrases he couldn’t comprehend. The only word Adoniyram could even half understand from her lips was his own name, and she was drawing it out all wrong. Was she that frightened of him? Wrapping his arms around her, trying to soothe her, he said, “Shoshannah, beloved, why are you so afraid? Calm yourself.”

His words had the opposite effect. She cried despairingly, covering her ears, obviously pleading with him again but using words he couldn’t decipher.

Kaleb paused near the kitchen in Adoniyram’s home, baffled, listening. He was almost certain he could hear Shoshannah outside. Was she crying? Looking left and
right, he leaned inside the hushed storeroom where he had hidden Zekaryah and I’ma-Keren. “Something’s happening outside. Wait here, I beg you. I’ll be right back.”

“Be safe,” I’ma-Keren whispered to him. Kaleb loved her for being concerned. She was in far more danger than he. Closing the door softly, he crept out to the courtyard and stared, appalled.

Two horses were nosing around the courtyard gardens for stray bits of greenery. And beyond them, near the gate, Adoniyram was kneeling on the bricked ground, holding Shoshannah in his arms. She was clutching her hands to her ears, crying, “I don’t understand! You’re not making sense! Adoniyram, stop this, please.”

Adoniyram’s other servants were backing away, looking thoroughly bewildered. Kaleb hoped they remained bewildered, because if Adoniyram didn’t take his hands off Shoshannah very soon, then Young Lord or not, he was going to be flattened like a lump of stomped clay.

Controlling himself strictly, Kaleb knelt near Adoniyram, gaining the young man’s attention. When Adoniyram threw him a secretive questioning look, Kal nodded tightly, knowing that he was wondering about their prisoners.

Yes, my lord, they are safe and in your household, but they won’t remain here, and neither will my wife
.

Adoniyram spoke to Kal in skewered, warped bits of sound. A command, Kaleb realized, startled.
Wonderful! This man has the power to kill me, and I don’t understand a single word of what he just said
.

Shouts were arising in the streets outside the gate, women shrieking horribly, men snarling. Two guardsmen suddenly tumbled inside the gate, kneeling, burbling
words at Adoniyram, making him stare at them, obviously confounded.

I didn’t understand them either
, Kaleb thought, swallowing hard.
Most High, has everyone forgotten how to talk?